Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Asian location shifted according to changing family circumstances. Speaking
in Cantonese, Simon, a focus group participant, represented an exaggerated
example of these tendencies, displaying also in his own hyper-mobility dif-
ferent locational logics in response to sequential family status passages (Ley
and Kobayashi 2005):
I immigrated to Canada in 1989. I really love Canada. Before we immigrated,
we would go to Canada for vacation, two to three times a year. The reason why
I like Canada is because my younger brother studied there. After I visited him
there I fell in love with Canada. He was in Vancouver…
But my wife never wanted to go there. She really didn't want to immigrate
to Canada because she had a lot of friends in Hong Kong. But she went
anyway because of me and the family… After June 4th. 1989, my wife was
willing to immigrate to Canada. But her English wasn't good at all. We also
knew that if I leave, I would have to give up my business here, and I wouldn't
have anything to do in Canada.
In Simon's condensed life history we gain insight to the decision dilemmas
of middle-class residents of the colony in the late 1980s and the range of
pressures and incentives acting upon them. A family member's education
had already brought Canada into the household's information field and had
permitted enjoyable holiday visits. However, disagreement within the family
precluded a longer-term move until the jarring calamity of Tiananmen
Square redefined geopolitical field forces and made migration suddenly
unavoidable. But geopolitical necessity rubbed awkwardly against financial
vulnerability, for their economic base was in Hong Kong, and it seemed as
if Simon's business would have to be sold with no prospects of an alterna-
tive in Vancouver. Moreover, they were linguistically unprepared, a severe
handicap for business success and everyday survival.
Migration went ahead with Simon assuming life as an astronaut to
manage his Hong Kong business, the family's economic lifeline. We pick up
the narrative with the household now living in Vancouver:
We've been there for over 12 years. I've always been flying back and forth.
I was an astronaut for about four or five years when we first moved to Vancouver.
After that I decided to move to Vancouver permanently. So I sold my business
in Hong Kong and moved… But now I'm back here by myself. I'm working
in Hong Kong while my family members are staying in Vancouver.
For several years Simon joined the long passenger list on the HKG-YVR
link of the 'Pacific shuttle' (Ong 1999). In a separate interview on a short
visit to Vancouver ('I'm leaving tonight'), he revealed the back-story of
economic and social tensions that led him to cease astronaut flying but then
